The RLPO is hoping to capitalise on the burgeoning classical music market in Japan with its first tour to the Far East country.

But it’s not the first Liverpool ‘band’ to make a name for itself in the land of the rising sun.

Here are three more Merseyside musical outfits which found they were Big in Japan.

1) The Beatles

The Beatles pictured in Tokyo, Japan as they arrive for their tour, July 1966.

No surprise here, as the Fab Four bestrode the globe, and remain hugely popular both with Japanese music fans and in the wider culture of the country.

The first Beatles singles were released in Japan in 1964, the same year as the Tokyo Olympics. And also the same year that John, Paul, George and Ringo got their own tribute band - the Tokyo Beatles, who played Beatles covers and even sported mop tops.

The Beatles first toured Japan during their (controversial, and, as it turned out, only) Asian tour of 1966, when they played five dates at Tokyo’s Budokan Arena.

2) Dead or Alive

Dead Or Alive, with Pete Burns

One of a slew of bands which came out of Liverpool in the early 1980s, Dead or Alive - fronted by the flamboyant Pete Burns - had seven top 40 hits and three top 30 albums in the UK, and also enjoyed a couple of US hit singles.

But the group also spun Japan right round baby, right round, gaining a cult following there.

Their appearances at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan - the same venue the Beatles had played 21 years earlier - and in Osaka were even filmed for a video called Rip It Up Live.

And by 1990, the group was releasing singles primarily for the Japanese market.

3) Buster

Perhaps the most improbable of the trio of Merseyside success stories in Japan, Buster was formed in 1974 and its members included Rob Fennah who later went on to co-write musical Twopence to Cross the Mersey.

While their debut single, Sunday, didn’t even breach the top 40 in the UK, it was a top 10 hit in Japan, and the band’s following four releases also made the Japanese top 20.

In 1977, they toured Japan, and enjoyed Buster-mania, playing live on TV there and following that with two sell-out concerts at, you’ve guessed it, the Budokan arena in one day.